FRANCK: String Quartet in D Major; FAURE: String Quartet in E Minor – Dante Quartet – Hyperion

by | Sep 20, 2008 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

FRANCK: String Quartet in D Major; FAURE: String Quartet in E Minor – Dante Quartet – Hyperion CDA67664, 67:21 [Distrib. by Harmonia mundi] **** :


I seem to recall from having read Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music that Cesar Franck’s String Quartet of 1889 could be represented geometrically as a triangle inscribed in a square. Given Franck’s penchant for cyclic form and his having dispersed his passionate thoughts amongst four movements, the analogy holds. This recording from the Dante Quartet (1-3 December 2007) attends to matters of harmonic texture with as much clarity as they can provide, given the busy, contrapuntal textures Franck favors, often hearkening through the string medium many of the same, melodic impulses that obsess his Piano Quintet in F Minor.

Combining aspects of both sonata-form and the ternary lied in the first movement, the intricate tracery assumes proportions befitting the late Beethoven quartets, but here colored by a hothouse mentality that affects the viola (Judith Busbridge) part significantly. The relatively brief Scherzo first came to my attention via an old CBS LP (ML 5116) of Budapest String Quartet encores. Light-footed in the manner of Mendelssohn, it still manages a plaintive, serpentine angst–made more acute by pervasive silences–more akin to Hugo Wolf. More touches from Mendelssohn for the Larghetto in B Major, its extended melody stated by the first violin, Krysia Osostowicz but soon complemented by the viola. The structure assumes that of a slow rondo, much like Mozart’s example, K. 511, except for the concertante writing. At several points, the sonority resembles Brahms, whose three quartets Franck owned in score and studied as a preparation for his own effort in the medium. The finale, Allegro molto, much like Beethoven’s Ninth and Berlioz’ Harold in Italy, quotes from prior movements before launching its unique ideas that will dovetail into the much-cited opening materials and then conclude in a startling D Major. The excited, driving phrases combine a hint of Mendelssohn’s Octet and the Brahms Op. 51, No. 1. The Scherzo trips by fantastically once more, while the cello (Bernard Gregor Smith) holds down a weaving bass line under the several voices looming large above it.

Gabriel Faure wrote his E Minor Quartet in 1923, a late work by a composer whose physical powers–particularly his hearing–were already failing. A deliberate Phrygian modality informs the E Minor contours of the opening movement, the viola’s playing a significant part in leading voices. The melancholy, tender energies play themselves out via sonata-form, although the recapitulation compresses the already laconic phrases even further. The Andante movement pre-dates the others, Faure having delved into an old manuscript of a proposed 1878 violin concerto. Proceeding in small, graduated fragments, we might feel the influence of late Beethoven, but the musical scales and eerie, throbbing  expressiveness never quite conform to a classical model. Triple and duple meters compete in the finale, which serves as both scherzo and sonata-form transition to a sunny E Major. Plucked figures underline sweet riffs in the viola and both violins, with simple triplets making an unadorned appearance rare in Faure.  “Light and cheerful” are the epithets Faure used to characterize this autumnal movement, whose emotional kinship to late Brahms adds a valedictory color especially piquant. Superb engineering from Ben Connellan insures us an intensely present experience.

– -Gary Lemco


 

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